Lessons Learned

This week on Wednesday Renae and I ran a 5K. It was a raft and run, so the first 5 miles you raft down the Provo River and the last 3 miles you run. I use the word run her very loosely. So here is the story.

    A horrible sound breaks the peaceful silence, all the air is sucked out of my lunges. I have no idea where I am or what is happening around me. I then wake up enough to figure out that its not the end of the world, but 6:00 in the morning and Renae's alarm is going off. We have to get up and get dressed for the 5k and head up the canyon. I stumble around the apartment trying to figure out what one even wears to a race. Shorts? Work out pants? A dress? I went with the work out pants, because a dress just wasn't doing it for me.
      When we get to the park we find that it is cold. The paper work said to be ready for 80s to 90s, or so says Renae because you know I didn't read that. People are huddled together for warmth as we all stand in the wet grass. those who registered with large teams stand by signs with their team names on them. The rest of us make team and stand by signs that say, "small teams fun" or "small teams speed". At that moment you had to pick one of two paths, will i be walking for fun or will i be throwing up with the fast people. We picked walking for fun. Then we wait, in the cold. And we wait and wait and wait. They ask us what teams are ready, our team indicates that we are. They let a different team on the bus. Finally we get one and start the ride up to the boats. We entered the white school bus and headed up. It felt like we were going to camp or on a field trip in the 6th grade.
     Our team was the 2nd boat in the water and we were off. You can watch the high light video of the rafting. We were passed twice, complete with water battles. We made good time down and started the 5k. I have no hustle. If you took all the hustle out of a turtle what was left would be me. But I did it and I finished. I came in 77 out of 91, remember that there were little kids and old people doing this thing. I wasn't even really trying to "win" but I was enjoying the landscape ect. The bikers on the Provo River Trail hate runners, they really hate joggers, and they wanted to kill me. One lady would wave her arm and yell everytime she passed a group of people from the 5k. Classy right?

OK time for lessons I Learned doing this 5k
1. If you run or walk you all got the same prize at the end.
2. You can have a great time with people you don't know and will never see again.
3. Slow and Steady does not win the race, but it does finish
4. Running when you are all wet is no fun
5. I love rafting
6. I'm ok with not doing well, or even trying